Taking creation evangelism to the streets!

Wayne Olling and Marc Kay share their experiences

‘Curious earth’ is the name of a pictorial display taken to street festivals
in and around Sydney, Australia, by two ‘Six Day—Young Earth Creationists’.
The display presents like a ‘Ripley’s—Believe It Or Not!’
but is unashamedly creationist in its content. The unusual display attracts a lot
of interest.

‘Frustration developed within me that people showed little or no interest
in church outreach activities such as bookstalls, child face painting and giveaways
at public venues. We had the “Words of Life” but couldn’t make
first base with the public to share this.’

‘I later saw a creationist ministry called “Bereshith”1 attract healthy interest at an indoor “Mind,
Body, Spirit Festival” held once a year in Sydney so I thought, “Why
not take something similar to street festivals?”’

‘I went through my back issues of Creation magazine, identified about
60 pictures I thought I could use, got copyright permission, reproduced the pictures,
added captions, had the pictures laminated, bought display panels and then attached
the pictures to the display panels with Velcro tape. There are five panels, each
with its own theme—geological formations, fossils, archaeological artifacts,
evolution fallacies, and dinosaurs—all presenting the case for a “young
earth” appearing by special creation. After printing brochures I was ready
to find where festivals were being conducted.’

Wayne explained the name ‘Curious Earth’: ‘A stereotype exists
in the minds of many people that Christian faith is detached from the real world;
it is nebulous, unreal, irrelevant to rocks and trees—the “real things”.’
This stereotype is a barrier to many engaging with the Church and, more importantly,
knowing Jesus Christ.’

‘I aimed to engage the mind of people about a world in which they live, that
they could see and touch, and that has a history and future consistent with events
described in the Word of God. I wanted to get the interest of people so I could
then introduce God.’

Wayne Olling and Marc Kay

Wayne chose the name ‘Curious Earth’ because it was not ‘churchy’
and was likely to provoke interest. He remarked that it also fits the scenario in
which we live—a wealth of observations supporting a case for a world specially
created only thousands of years ago yet, curiously, most people hold to an evolutionary,
long age idea of origins.

They have had a wonderful response to the display. Wayne explains: ‘I said
I was looking for a means to engage with the public over the things of God and I’ve
found it!’

Wayne and Marc have been operating for four years now at festivals that attract
from 3,000 to over 60,000 attendees. They have met with scoffing from some hardened
people who soon pick up that they are creationists. Most of these scoffers don’t
stay around to defend their belief. Wayne commented, ‘I guess that says something
about the strength of their case.’

However, the overwhelming response of those who stop by the display is one of genuine
interest. Even if Wayne or Marc don’t get to talk to each person, the people
can view the pictures and captions and receive a message which goes some way to
‘… demolish arguments and every pretension which sets itself up against
the knowledge of God …’ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Then the availability of free brochures
assists. Many people have said ‘This is fascinating!’ and want more
information beyond what is on display. Wayne and Marc refer them to websites, particularly
creation.com.

Wayne remarked, ‘I once hungered for people to speak to me about the Word
of God. Now I have big numbers of people coming up to me saying in effect, “What
do you have to say to me?” This is like manna from heaven!’

‘Dialogue can be so extended and exacting, when the person leaves I feel so
drained that I need a small break before engaging with the next person. At the larger
festivals I can go home tired and with a hoarse voice. However, the elevation of
my spirit and the impetus for prayer to God far outweigh the physical discomforts.’

‘A tool for our time’

Not everyone is ready to receive what Wayne and Marc say and will not seek after
the Lord. People have a variety of issues to be dealt with before they are ready
to receive the Lord. Wayne says. ‘Only the Lord brings life; we have to recognise
we are in the business of seed sowing and there is a lot of ground to be covered.
There is even the prior task of soil preparation which I believe is the Lord’s
work, but he may use us to remove obstructions such as evolutionary/long age views
which prevent the seed reaching fertile soil.’

If it does nothing else, ‘Curious Earth’ presents a challenge to a person’s
view of origins and that person is often willing to engage in further dialogue.
Potential then exists to probe for whatever obstruction prevents the person inquiring
further after the Lord.

Wayne: ‘I think that this type of Creation Evangelism is certainly a tool
for our time. There are church stalls at festivals, but such is the retreated position
of the many churches today that the strategy has been reduced to one or more activity—free
child face painting; free water, tea or coffee; or postcards of the church building
with an accompanying list of ministries. Some churches even have volunteers standing
in the stream of passers-by thrusting into their hands leaflets advertising upcoming
church events. The motivation to reach people is right, but the strategy is not
that of our Lord Jesus or the Apostle Paul—they engaged the minds
of people right where they were (e.g. Acts 17:16–34). Creation evangelism presents such
an opportunity.’

Marc obviously agrees with Wayne on the value of this approach to evangelism: ‘I
wouldn’t give up my weekends if I didn’t. A few years ago I finished
a degree at Sydney University and the University of New South Wales. In those five
years I didn’t see one Christian group give a single creationist lunchtime
lecture, have a stand which addressed the evolution/creation debate, or engage people
on the basis of their worldview—whether life and everything is the basis of
chance chemistry or a Person who designed everything quickly and originally perfectly.

‘I did see one well-known churchman debate an atheist academic philosopher
and proudly say to a huge audience, ‘I have no problem with big bangs and
the like!’ and then go on to immediately condemn people on the basis of John 3:36.2
Afterwards, there were no queues of people waiting to be baptised.’

Marc thinks that many Christians have a communication problem: ‘One of the
most disappointing aspects of my life on university campuses was the language used
by Christians to invite people to their groups. It contrasts starkly with Jesus’
approach—He talked about weddings and the like. It was a cause of celebration
and a real discovery that something great was going to be revealed, pearls and banquets
and things. Jesus appealed to all and sundry in language they related to. On campuses,
if you can get past the exclusivist language that only a Christian could understand,
there is nothing there to entice you, that draws you to want to hear something that
could make real sense of this world. What is presented today is often so contrived
or gimmicky.’

‘Curious Earth’ starts at a point that we all have in common. Marc explains:
‘What better place to start with than introducing something we all share,
the earth’s history. There aren’t too many people who don’t give
a hoot about trees or rocks or animals, etc. You stick our display among the same
old stalls at a fair, whether it’s selling candy or leather craft, etc., a
stall that has pictures of anomalies in fossils, petrification, geological formations
or archaeological artifacts, and people will engage you. We’ve had some massive
conversations with people and got them to start thinking along the line that maybe
the earth isn’t a product of blind evolutionary forces or that everything
came into being over eons of time.’

And this results in many opportunities to share the Good News. Marc: ‘It doesn’t
take very long for most people to work out that we aren’t just here to talk
about rocks and things but the Person behind the rock, so to speak. We’ve
had Scientologists—they had a stand next to us once—“click”
and, ironically, I might add, ask us straight away, quicker than most Christians,
“What’s the importance?” When these two Scientologists got it
that a rapidly created, error-free universe meant that there was a God who loved
us and didn’t want us to suffer, I could literally see the light come on in
their eyes!’

On another occasion Marc engaged a real hardcore Marxist—Marc hadn’t
mentioned anything ‘religious’ to him but only talked science. He said
to Marc, ‘I’ve never met a Christian who speaks like this.’ He
quickly understood the connection between brief, error-free creation and Christ
being that Creator.

Wayne and Marc would like to see others take up this approach to ministry in the
marketplace. Anyone wanting advice on getting started can contact
Wayne and Marc via CMI.

Thank you Wayne and Marc. May the Lord bless your testimony in His Name.

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Readers’ comments

Shawn M.,Canada, 21 April 2010

What a refreshing article! It has really inspired me. I think I shall be even more inspired to start something similar to what Wayne and Marc are doing. I've been thinking of making plans for sometime, but I think this article was the last straw!

Thanks again for unashamedly proclaiming it.

John M.,Canada, 1 January 2013

Great article.

Also just want to comment that the creation.com cards can be affixed to public cork bulletin boards with a tack in grocery stores, etc. as well.

Does CMI print and distribute a "bumper sticker" type of vinyl sticky sign as well?

David Catchpoole responds

Type "bumper sticker" in the searchbox of our website to see what bumper stickers are available from your country's CMI office.